Question

explain why the goldsmith( the Goto family), who minted the japanese Oban coin, the largest gold coin ever corculated as money in history, put his signature in ink on the surface of the coin. In other words, explain why ink, which is easily scraped off, was used to show the authenticity of the coin. Include in your discussion the fact that any coin will fall into disuse when it is not trusted and rejected by people.

Answer 1

Goto family used to put their signature with ink on the coin which could fade away very easily. The reason for this is that only those coins could be used for transactions and could be trusted by people which had seal mark on them.

This seal mark could only be written and inscribed on the coin once the ink with which the signatures were done, faded away. So that is why ink was used to put signatures so that it could fade away easily and then seal could be inscribed on the coin.

This seal was very important for the coin because the coins without the seal inscription were not trusted by people and were rejected. These rejections could make the coin a total waste and of no use. So there had to be seal on the coin to prove its value and that was possible only after ink faded away.